KPTA Members, Kyle Salsbury, PT, DPT and Jeff Buis, PTA, recently published an article in ColumbiaMagazine.com. The article, PTs Suggest Conservative Treatment for Opioid Overuse, advises consumers to consider physical therapy and other conservative treatments before medication or surgery. Read the article here. Tell us how your clinic is advancing the mission of #ChoosePT and you could be featured in an edition of This Week in Physical Therapy.

Chad Garvey, PT,DPT,FAAOMPT,OCS, a member of KPTA’s #ChoosePT Task Force, was recently featured in an episode of KET’s Health Three60. The interview was part of KET's Inside Opioid Addiction initiative, funded in part by a grant from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. Chad discussed physical therapy as a non-pharmaceutical pain treatment. To watch the episode, click here.

Tony English contacts the Lexington Herald Leader and gets an article published "Choose Physical Therapy to Help with Pain Management."

Sam Brown of Monticello Physical Therapy places an ad and an article in the Wayne County News.

KORT educates and empowers their PT staff on chronic pain physiology and meets with insurers to discuss physical therapy interventions as a safe alternative to opioid prescriptions for their insured patients.

Physical Therapist Discusses Chronic Pain on Louisville Radio

Frazier Rehab’s Gordon Crouch, MScPT, CCI was a guest on WLOU on their weekly call-in talk radio show discussing the magnitude of the current opioid problem and the benefits of physical therapy in treating chronic pain. He discussed various conditions that can be treated by PT’s and explained how large and wide spread the problem of chronic pain is in our society. Gordon also educated the community about what a physical therapist can do to affect or reduce pain. Gordon earned his MScPT degree from the University of Alberta, Canada and has worked for KentuckyOne Health’s Frazier Rehab for five years. Gordon shares, “I am continually fascinated by the interconnected nature of the body and am increasingly convinced that the best level of care treats the whole person."

A presentation was made by Peggy Block, PT, MHS to the West Kentucky Community and Technical College as a part of the Science Symposium series held on the campus. The presentation was geared to students enrolled in Anatomy and Physiology courses. The presentation’s objectives were to explain the science behind pain and talk about the interventions available through physical therapy. Over 1/3 of the audience had a family member or friend with chronic pain. Students in the WKCTC PTA program handed out #ChoosePT resources to attendees.

St. Elizabeth Healthcare is on a mission to photograph their PTs and PTAs holding the #ChoosePT logo. Mark Cook, PTA, and a member of KPTA’s #ChoosePT Task Force is leading the campaign. Mark hopes to educate his colleagues about resources available through MoveForwardPT.com, which they can then share with patients. Mark's goal is to take a photograph of all the St. Elizabeth PTs and PTAs with the #ChoosePT sign and promote it through social media.

Over the past 15 years, increasing numbers of Americans have been prescribed opioids for pain management. Sales of prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999. So have deaths related to prescription opioids. So have heroin-related deaths.

APTA's #ChoosePT campaign raises awareness about the dangers of prescription opioids and encourages consumers and prescribers to choose safer alternatives like physical therapy, consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines released in March 2016 urging nondrug treatment for most chronic pain conditions.

The resources provided in this toolkit allow you to extend the reach and impact of the #ChoosePT campaign in a variety of ways, ranging from free social media engagement to paid advertising.

The first physical therapist arrived in Kentucky in 1935. Within the next few years Mary McDonnell was joined by 15 of her colleagues. They came to fight the crippling effects of polio. They touched the lives of World War II veterans whose bodies were mangled and broken. In 1947, feeling the need to unite and expand their knowledge, they founded the Kentucky Chapter of the American Physical Therapy Association. These pioneers could only dream their association, which started with 16 members, would grow to serve over 2,000.